Alan Swann

Peterborough United manager Grant McCann was left fuming as his side were denied a come-from-behind victory at Walsall today (September 16).

The Posh boss described a decision to disallow a close-range strike from substitute Junior Morias 10 minutes from time as ‘crazy’.

Posh substitute Junior Morias thinks he has just scored the winnt goal at Walsall. He was wrong. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Posh had equalised through Gwion Edwards just eight minutes earlier, a goal that kept McCann’s men in second place in League One. Former Posh player Erhun Oztumer had fired Walsall in front in the first-half,

But it was one moment of bizarre officiating which dominated McCann’s post-match thoughts. An assistant referee briefly raised his flag as Morias netted from a deflected Marcus Maddison cross.

He then appeared to change his mind before changing it again after speaking to match referee Sebastian Stockbridge to award Walsall a free kick.

“I’m absolutely fuming,” McCann stated. “I have watched the incident back. Junior is well onside when Marcus crosses the ball so I have no idea how the officials have come to such a crazy decision.

Rivals managers Jon Witney and Grant McCann are all smiles before the game betweemn Posh and Walsall. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

“The referee went on about a deflection when I asked him about it, but the deflection was irrelevant.

“We’re very angry and very frustrated. The assistant referee made the right decision and then changed his mind for some reason.”

McCann blamed himself for a lacklustre first-half performance from his side. He started the game with a 3-4-1-2 formation, but Posh improved when switching to 4-4-2 for the second half. Substitute Chris Forrester created the equaliser for Edwards.

“I picked the wrong team and the wrong shape for the first-half,” McCann added. “That performance was nothing to do with the players.

“In the second half I picked the right team and the right formation and we were top class. We dominated the game and created so many chances we are disappointed not to have come away with the win.

“We won four games with the starting formation and I expected us to cause them problems, but we didn’t.

“It’s good to know though we can play two formations well and there’s a third we can use as well that no-one has seen yet.